Shortly after accompanying Gadd and Livia to extract power from a bloodstone, I had another task in this area. Our friend Saerin, a member of the Shining Blade in Gadd’s Encampment asked me to retrieve a few more items tied to the nearby bloodstone. Each item was bound to powerful ettins located on each section of Bloodstone Caves. One is a shimmering essence to enchant the Shining Blade’s weapons, one is an arcane crystal shard that could turn their arrows into armor-piercing thunderbolts, and one is a spectral crystal from the most powerful ettin that can give them even more power over their White Mantle enemies. Malory K. joined me once again as we set off to explore more of the Depths of Tyria. The path to the Bloodstone Caves is full of monsters, but you can avoid most of them if you’re careful. When we reached what appeared to be a blocked doorway, the engraved runes lit up and the door opened to reveal our path.

Entering the first level of the Bloodstone Caves, we noticed that it shares a common appearance to other caves in the Depths of Tyria. Then we were attacked by a group of enchanted weapons and a forgemaster. My friend Malory had planned for the abundance of brutes found here, and brought along a few illusion spells to frustrate them.

The majority of the foes are brutes, but if you stray from the shortest route to the next level, you will encounter incubi. They delight in dazing spellcasters, but that doesn’t effect me and I have no trouble firing arrows into their squishy bodies.

We soon reached the first ettin mentioned by Saerin. This Paranoia Ettin gave up its shimmering essence when slain.

This first level of the caves is quite short and we reached the end soon enough. Just a few ettins blocked our path to the door, but they were dealt with easily enough.

On the second level, several poison traps were installed to make our descent more difficult. On top of that, we encountered more monsters so we often entered combat while still being poisoned.

The sound of bats above us drew our attention to the large tree that has grown to reach the cavern ceiling. Malory and I took a few moments to admire the beauty of the plant life that flourishes here underground, before moving onto the final chamber.

On my previous trip through here with Gadd and Livia, I had noticed these glowing purple obelisks that have inscriptions flowing down. Their appearance is identical to the obelisks found in the Realm of Torment. However with Abaddon’s death, I didn’t fear for the evil they were once associated with. I am curious as to why they were constructed here though.

After killing yet another power ettin, this time holding onto the arcane crystal shard, I examined the obelisks more throughly. At the end of this room there are the remains of two monoliths. Their appearance strengthens the ties of this room to Abaddon. The last time I encountered such a sight it was at the base of Abaddon’s shrine, but the two here have no clear inscriptions. Malory and I took note of this and then moved onto the third and last level of the Bloodstone Caves.

The features of this third section are not very notable. Again it shares features already familiar to that of other caves or dungeons in the Depths of Tyria. One thing worth mentioning is that through the use of the Light of Deldrimor, we gained access to a room full of treasures. Other than that, we continued to fight more enchanted weapons and ettins in the dark and avoided poison traps whenever possible.

Finally we reached the bloodstone, which was guarded by three ettins and more enchanted weapons. One of them was more powerful than the rest. He was the Eldritch Ettin, and he holds the spectral crystal that Saerin desires. The key to dealing with this mob is to grab the attention of just one ettin. If they all come after your party at once, the consequences are deadly.

The sensation of being so close to a bloodstone is exhilarating. There are a total of five bloodstones in Tyria, and this the third I’ve encountered. If someone could reassemble all five bloodstones (including the keystone), they would gain an incredible power over the other beings of our world. Of course this is very unlikely, because the gods went out of their way to make these inaccessible.
I’d love to stay here a bit longer, but there is still much work to be done to stop the destroyers.